Tuesday, March 27, 2018
The Mold Avoider’s Dilemma: What Should I Do About My Stuff?
We find ourselves often explaining the complexity of our situation and the decision we have to make and I thought I would just share a link that does an amazing job of bringing all the various thoughts regarding the dilemma that one faces after being exposed to mold toxins. This link presents the various different thoughts and then provides further links from various sources supporting each thought. They have done a good job, so I won't even bother to try sum it up ... suffice to say it's a difficult and complicated decision to make, but in end we have to keep in mind that we are dealing with health issues of not just one but three kids and mold toxin levels that are through the roof. Those two factors are enough to make us realize that we need to be super cautious for if we don't do it right the first time we'll just be doing it over again in a few years.
Random Mold Info
When researched I usually keep a document so I can remember where I found information and be able to go back to it if necessary. Since it will just take too much time for my brain to put together a nice organized post, instead I am simply going to copy and paste exerts from that document to give a bit of an idea of what we're dealing with. The list is just random information, placed in no specific order, about mold and it's effects on people.
Mold Spore (spor) - tiny spores that are not visible to the naked eye produced by mold. Mold spores are very hardy and can survive under conditions in which mold cannot grow, such as in dry and harsh environments. These spores travel through outdoor and indoor air. When mold spores land on a surface where moisture is present, mold can start to grow.
Mycotoxins (mī′kōtok′sin) - toxic chemicals that are present on spores and small fragments of mold and fungus that are released into the air.
Mold spores are extremely tiny and float through the air. They can maintain their viability to reproduce in many environments until they land on a appropriate surface
Mold spores are much smaller than pollen grains, allowing many of them to bypass the normal filtering function of the nose effectively
Mycotoxins cause toxic symptoms which are much worse than the allergic symptoms caused by ordinary molds. Some of the symptoms caused by toxic molds include bleeding, damage to internal organs, mental impairment, cancer and even death in some cases.
You might not realize it, but you're surrounded by spores, both indoors and outdoors. They range in size from three to 40 microns, less than half the width of a human hair, allowing them to float in the air sight unseen.
Mycotoxins are toxins produced by some species of mold (myco means fungal). These mycotoxins are some of the most toxic substances in existence. When people are around toxic mold they are usually exposed to airborne mycotoxins by breathing them in. Mycotoxins in the air can also enter through a person's eyes. Trichothecene mycotoxins can be absorbed through the skin as well
Mycotoxins are toxic chemicals produced by both molds and yeasts as a way to stake out their territory and allow for their continued proliferation.
If the air is sufficiently humid over a sustained period many molds can get their moisture requirements to grow from the air. This makes basements and attics especially susceptible.
Although molds cannot grow on inorganic substances such as metal or glass they can grow on built up dust and dirt that accumulates on these items provided sufficient moisture is present
With water, molds grow. Without water, molds die but the spores do not. If water returns, the spores regenerate growing colonies of mold.
Eliminating spores altogether is impossible, so you need to control the conditions that create mold growth. The easiest and most effective method is to reduce the amount of moisture in your home or business.
At the core of why one person becomes ill from this exposure and another doesn’t is their gene susceptibility (or predisposition) – what is built into their DNA.
 |
| Mold Spores |
Mold Spore (spor) - tiny spores that are not visible to the naked eye produced by mold. Mold spores are very hardy and can survive under conditions in which mold cannot grow, such as in dry and harsh environments. These spores travel through outdoor and indoor air. When mold spores land on a surface where moisture is present, mold can start to grow.
Mycotoxins (mī′kōtok′sin) - toxic chemicals that are present on spores and small fragments of mold and fungus that are released into the air.
Mold spores are extremely tiny and float through the air. They can maintain their viability to reproduce in many environments until they land on a appropriate surface
Mold spores are much smaller than pollen grains, allowing many of them to bypass the normal filtering function of the nose effectively
Mycotoxins cause toxic symptoms which are much worse than the allergic symptoms caused by ordinary molds. Some of the symptoms caused by toxic molds include bleeding, damage to internal organs, mental impairment, cancer and even death in some cases.
In laymen's terms, molds produce
mycotoxins. These substances, although unseen by the naked eye, are
ingested and then enter the body through the skin, mucous and airways.
Once ingested, mold has the requirements to colonize and spread. In doing
this, it can compromise the immune system and damage everyday processes of the
body. Mold and yeast are interchangeable only in their dimorphic state,
which is often a big misconception, although both are fungi.
You might not realize it, but you're surrounded by spores, both indoors and outdoors. They range in size from three to 40 microns, less than half the width of a human hair, allowing them to float in the air sight unseen.
Mycotoxins are toxins produced by some species of mold (myco means fungal). These mycotoxins are some of the most toxic substances in existence. When people are around toxic mold they are usually exposed to airborne mycotoxins by breathing them in. Mycotoxins in the air can also enter through a person's eyes. Trichothecene mycotoxins can be absorbed through the skin as well
Mycotoxins are toxic chemicals produced by both molds and yeasts as a way to stake out their territory and allow for their continued proliferation.
Molds grow best in warm, damp, and humid conditions, and spread and reproduce by making spores. Mold spores can survive harsh environmental conditions, such as dry conditions, that do not support normal mold growth.
If the air is sufficiently humid over a sustained period many molds can get their moisture requirements to grow from the air. This makes basements and attics especially susceptible.
Although molds cannot grow on inorganic substances such as metal or glass they can grow on built up dust and dirt that accumulates on these items provided sufficient moisture is present
With water, molds grow. Without water, molds die but the spores do not. If water returns, the spores regenerate growing colonies of mold.
Eliminating spores altogether is impossible, so you need to control the conditions that create mold growth. The easiest and most effective method is to reduce the amount of moisture in your home or business.
At the core of why one person becomes ill from this exposure and another doesn’t is their gene susceptibility (or predisposition) – what is built into their DNA.
Approximately
24 percent of the population is genetically vulnerable to mold toxicity; they
have a certain immune response gene (HLA-DR). If you’re one of those people
with mold susceptibility genes, you are far more likely to have an adverse
reaction to mold when exposed to a sufficient quantity.
Nearly everyone will become ill when
exposed to sufficient levels of biotoxins, but most people recover once
they are removed from exposure. Their detoxification system is able to
recognize the biotoxins in their bodies as toxins and eliminate them via the
normal mechanisms. However,
a minority of people have HLA (human leukocyte antigen) genes that prevent
their bodies from being able to recognize and thus eliminate biotoxins. The
biotoxins will remain in the body and trigger a chronic, systemic inflammatory
response. These are the people that develop CIRS.
CIRS is not an allergy; it’s a state of chronic inflammation caused by the immune
system becoming out of whack. The CIRS doesn’t heal on its own, will not abate,
and will continue to provoke illness unless it’s treated. Their illness is
built into their DNA and once triggered, the inflammatory response and
resulting symptoms can last for years.
The 25% + of people who carry the HLA-DRBQ gene
related to mold toxicity, do not make the antibodies needed to deactivate and
remove mold toxins. Their bodies cannot recognize the mold toxins as ‘bad
guys’ to be eliminated. So the toxins get stored
Mold toxins are lipophilic, meaning their molecular structure consists
of fatty acid molecules. For this reason, mold toxins migrate to and deposit in
the brain because the brain is the ‘fattiest’ organ, consisting of 60% fat.
Once the immune system
is compromised by mold fungus, additional damage by any number of toxins,
bacteria or viruses can destroy our bodies, and affect even our brain.
Mold commonly enters the body through breathing in spores. However, it can also
enter through the skin and even the eyes. Once inside, mold can reproduce
itself often using our own bodies, organs, tissues, and even our blood, for
food.
New Location
Once we received the ERMI results on our house our first plan of action was to organize evacuation of the home. Unfortunately this was not as simple as packing a bag and moving out, but thankfully we had somewhat suspected the possibility that Mold Toxins was a problem, so we were aware of some of what is necessary to remove yourself from mold toxins.
I had no idea that mold spores live in pretty much EVERYTHING, but the reality is that mold spores can hunker down and enjoy life in any porous item. The only items that it cannot get into is non-porous items like glass, metal, ceramic, porcelain. And the thing that makes them so difficult to deal with is the fact that they can survive "dormant" in your items for a very long time and when the right condition arises quickly come back to life and recontaminate everything.
Given how high our test results were we quickly realized the reality that we could not take items from our home with or we would be cross contaminating our new location. We are currently in a temporary location, which is my parents home. We have temporarily allowed some items that are debatable on whether they can be cleaned until we get everything figured out, but for the rest we want to make sure that we do not contaminate their home as well and so besides clothing we pretty much took nothing with.
The biggest debateable item is clothing. Some say with proper cleaning you can clean clothes that are less than 1/2" thick, other state that cleaning clothes has not worked for them and most say it's not worth the chance that you do not actually kill all the mold spores and mycotoxins and they begin to reproduce again and contaminate your new location. Because the initial period of leaving a toxin home also results in detoxification we chose to do the cleaning method on our clothes for the time being and will replace them when we find a permanant home. We took our clothes to the laundry mat and cleaned them with borax, vinegar and detergent and we continue to use this method after each wear, washing anything that our bodies touch after one use. So the washing machine is getting a work out cleaning clothing, towels and sheets regularly. And showers are a daily necessity to continue to clean any toxins that are released from the body. The kids are not allowed back to the home since they are the ones who are sick, but if Rob and I go to our house it requires a separate set of clothes and showering as soon as we get back. All of this reminds me a bit of living on a pig farm ... except backwards since we're trying to not let the toxins outside of the house and on the pig farm you try to keep outside toxins from getting into the barn.
It sounds like we're a danger to be around 😕 But we were more dangerous to be around before we left our home then we are now, and so far we haven't heard of anyone who has become ill from being in contact with us or our home 😊 These methods are use in order to help us stay as clean as possible and being to heal. A short amount of contact with toxic mold is not normally a problem for the average person, but the issues we are dealing with are a build up of several years of exposure. If we do not take careful precautions now, we will never know if this is the answer as to why the kids are sick.
As for the house, lots of difficult and complicated decisions need to be made there. For now we need to do more investigating and get some further professional help before we make any decisions. One thing we know: We will not return to it, it simply would not be safe for our family and we would always wonder if we are safe. This is actually something we already decided before the test results came in. We felt that we would always questions the situation even if the results came back half decent and so it was best to start over fresh somewhere else.
I am running out of time (have to go to the library now for internet 😒) so I will have to close off here.
I had no idea that mold spores live in pretty much EVERYTHING, but the reality is that mold spores can hunker down and enjoy life in any porous item. The only items that it cannot get into is non-porous items like glass, metal, ceramic, porcelain. And the thing that makes them so difficult to deal with is the fact that they can survive "dormant" in your items for a very long time and when the right condition arises quickly come back to life and recontaminate everything.
Given how high our test results were we quickly realized the reality that we could not take items from our home with or we would be cross contaminating our new location. We are currently in a temporary location, which is my parents home. We have temporarily allowed some items that are debatable on whether they can be cleaned until we get everything figured out, but for the rest we want to make sure that we do not contaminate their home as well and so besides clothing we pretty much took nothing with.
The biggest debateable item is clothing. Some say with proper cleaning you can clean clothes that are less than 1/2" thick, other state that cleaning clothes has not worked for them and most say it's not worth the chance that you do not actually kill all the mold spores and mycotoxins and they begin to reproduce again and contaminate your new location. Because the initial period of leaving a toxin home also results in detoxification we chose to do the cleaning method on our clothes for the time being and will replace them when we find a permanant home. We took our clothes to the laundry mat and cleaned them with borax, vinegar and detergent and we continue to use this method after each wear, washing anything that our bodies touch after one use. So the washing machine is getting a work out cleaning clothing, towels and sheets regularly. And showers are a daily necessity to continue to clean any toxins that are released from the body. The kids are not allowed back to the home since they are the ones who are sick, but if Rob and I go to our house it requires a separate set of clothes and showering as soon as we get back. All of this reminds me a bit of living on a pig farm ... except backwards since we're trying to not let the toxins outside of the house and on the pig farm you try to keep outside toxins from getting into the barn.
It sounds like we're a danger to be around 😕 But we were more dangerous to be around before we left our home then we are now, and so far we haven't heard of anyone who has become ill from being in contact with us or our home 😊 These methods are use in order to help us stay as clean as possible and being to heal. A short amount of contact with toxic mold is not normally a problem for the average person, but the issues we are dealing with are a build up of several years of exposure. If we do not take careful precautions now, we will never know if this is the answer as to why the kids are sick.
As for the house, lots of difficult and complicated decisions need to be made there. For now we need to do more investigating and get some further professional help before we make any decisions. One thing we know: We will not return to it, it simply would not be safe for our family and we would always wonder if we are safe. This is actually something we already decided before the test results came in. We felt that we would always questions the situation even if the results came back half decent and so it was best to start over fresh somewhere else.
I am running out of time (have to go to the library now for internet 😒) so I will have to close off here.
New Characters
It’s been just over two months
since I originally wrote. This is not
because nothing has been happening, but more because so much has been happening
in our home that the last thing I have time to think about is blogging … and
most of it has been so challenging, confusing and difficult on the brain and on reality that I
really did not know what to share and what to just muddle through and hope
things would settle all on their own. Unfortunately things did not settle and so I will try to give a bit of an update on what's been going on.
Five days after I posted last Matthew’s supposed vestibular neuritis took a drastic turn, and not for the
good L On January 26 he came
home with severe dizziness to the point he didn’t know whether he was sick with
a flu or if it was his regular dizziness that had increased. This did not settle and over the past seven weeks he has been to the
family doctor, ER a couple times, an emergency ENT appointment, had an MRI done and various blood work and has been to
the pediatrician. During this time Matthew has been out of school more than he has been in
school, to the point where we’ve almost given up on sending him to
school and mostly home school him. He
continues to have dizziness/vertigo which can get pretty extreme at times
making it so that he has trouble walking.
When the dizziness is bad he feels like he’s going to black out when he
stands up or tries to walk and prefers to just spend time in a lazy boy or
laying down. He gets headaches and zapping
sensations in his head (as well as his arm and leg a couple times). While he doesn’t sleep during the day he does
sleep at least 11 hours each night and I still have to wake him in the morning. He gets motions sickness, so he cannot take
the bus for school or prefers not to go on car rides more the 10-15
minutes long. As well he continues to do the
neck cracking thing that first led us to doing chiropractor and
physiotherapy and the vestibular neuritis diagnosis . He also has these weird
squeaky noises that he always makes in his throat. At times he gets shotting pains in his stomach. He has low ferritin levels and his first
blood test showed his TSH (thyroid) levels to be high, the second one showed
them back in the acceptable level. His
vitamin D levels are low as well. His
MRI came back fine.
Now I have to change to
another character – Marietta. I
mentioned in my introductory post that
Marietta is suffering from Post Concussion Syndrome. So I’ll try keep her story brief ;) On January 31, 2017 Marietta sustained a
concussion while skiing. We are now over 14 months post concussion and her
recovery has been at a standstill in the last 9 months. Her main symptoms are sensitivity to noise
and light, brain fog, headaches, extreme fatigue, at times nausea and a brain that simply refuses to work a lot
of the time. If she tries to push her
brain it shuts down and weird symptoms will begin to appear such as an
inability to read (can see words but has no idea what they say) or an inability
to walk, or a feeling like underwater and the person who is talking is far
away. Pushing her brain to work results
in extreme pain in the back of her head that can last for days after an
activity. All of this has left her
having a hard time to complete school.
She lost a semester right after her accident. She returned to school in September taking
only one course and in February she started two course, but is struggling to do
justice to these courses. She doesn’t
attend school regularly and has to work at her own pace when her brain decides
to work enough to allow her to complete work.
We have been to various doctors and continue to hear - rest, don’t over
stimulate (but don’t understimulate as the brain will decondition) and it will all
go away in time. Yet none of them can
guide her on what to do or how to stimulate improvement. We have given up on mainstream medicine and
have tried Vision Therapy, Osteopath and
are currently working on Neurofeedback.
Marietta also gets car sick and cannot take the bus and so she requires
a ride to school each day as well. We
live 45 minutes away from the high school, so this means a lot of driving is
happening in our house with two kids unable to take the bus (thankfully the
elementary school is only 8 minutes away).
All of this has had us thinking … WHY? Why are all three kids sick? Why are they all sick with head/neurological symptoms? Is there a common theme here? Is there a relationship between these problems? We have always assumed Marietta has Post Concussion Syndrome, but is something else playing a factor so that she is unable to recover? Matthew’s initial symptoms began slowly last spring and have increased over time until they came to head in January, is there a correlation with everyone getting sick in early 2017?
This blog was supposed to be about Rebecca, but I think I’m going to have to do some expanding on
our main character(s) and topic.
Five days after I posted last Matthew’s supposed vestibular neuritis took a drastic turn, and not for the
good L On January 26 he came
home with severe dizziness to the point he didn’t know whether he was sick with
a flu or if it was his regular dizziness that had increased. This did not settle and over the past seven weeks he has been to the
family doctor, ER a couple times, an emergency ENT appointment, had an MRI done and various blood work and has been to
the pediatrician. During this time Matthew has been out of school more than he has been in
school, to the point where we’ve almost given up on sending him to
school and mostly home school him. He
continues to have dizziness/vertigo which can get pretty extreme at times
making it so that he has trouble walking.
When the dizziness is bad he feels like he’s going to black out when he
stands up or tries to walk and prefers to just spend time in a lazy boy or
laying down. He gets headaches and zapping
sensations in his head (as well as his arm and leg a couple times). While he doesn’t sleep during the day he does
sleep at least 11 hours each night and I still have to wake him in the morning. He gets motions sickness, so he cannot take
the bus for school or prefers not to go on car rides more the 10-15
minutes long. As well he continues to do the
neck cracking thing that first led us to doing chiropractor and
physiotherapy and the vestibular neuritis diagnosis . He also has these weird
squeaky noises that he always makes in his throat. At times he gets shotting pains in his stomach. He has low ferritin levels and his first
blood test showed his TSH (thyroid) levels to be high, the second one showed
them back in the acceptable level. His
vitamin D levels are low as well. His
MRI came back fine.
What have these
appointments and test concluded? At this time,
nothing really. The doctor doesn’t think
his ferritin levels are low enough to cause his symptoms – although I beg to
differ on that one, being someone who struggled for years with low ferritin and
the side effects of it. We have put him
on a high dose of iron. We will have to
check his TSH levels again sometime in the future to see what level is more
accurate or if they are doing some odd fluctation thing. Again the doctors tell us that
his symptoms do not match, which from what I read makes sense, but looking on
support groups I read enough people who talk about having
dizziness/vertigo. The pediatrician is
trying to get us in to see a neurologist … normal waiting list is about a year,
but she’s hoping to try fast track us.
Now I have to change to
another character – Marietta. I
mentioned in my introductory post that
Marietta is suffering from Post Concussion Syndrome. So I’ll try keep her story brief ;) On January 31, 2017 Marietta sustained a
concussion while skiing. We are now over 14 months post concussion and her
recovery has been at a standstill in the last 9 months. Her main symptoms are sensitivity to noise
and light, brain fog, headaches, extreme fatigue, at times nausea and a brain that simply refuses to work a lot
of the time. If she tries to push her
brain it shuts down and weird symptoms will begin to appear such as an
inability to read (can see words but has no idea what they say) or an inability
to walk, or a feeling like underwater and the person who is talking is far
away. Pushing her brain to work results
in extreme pain in the back of her head that can last for days after an
activity. All of this has left her
having a hard time to complete school.
She lost a semester right after her accident. She returned to school in September taking
only one course and in February she started two course, but is struggling to do
justice to these courses. She doesn’t
attend school regularly and has to work at her own pace when her brain decides
to work enough to allow her to complete work.
We have been to various doctors and continue to hear - rest, don’t over
stimulate (but don’t understimulate as the brain will decondition) and it will all
go away in time. Yet none of them can
guide her on what to do or how to stimulate improvement. We have given up on mainstream medicine and
have tried Vision Therapy, Osteopath and
are currently working on Neurofeedback.
Marietta also gets car sick and cannot take the bus and so she requires
a ride to school each day as well. We
live 45 minutes away from the high school, so this means a lot of driving is
happening in our house with two kids unable to take the bus (thankfully the
elementary school is only 8 minutes away).
All of this has had us thinking … WHY? Why are all three kids sick? Why are they all sick with head/neurological symptoms? Is there a common theme here? Is there a relationship between these problems? We have always assumed Marietta has Post Concussion Syndrome, but is something else playing a factor so that she is unable to recover? Matthew’s initial symptoms began slowly last spring and have increased over time until they came to head in January, is there a correlation with everyone getting sick in early 2017?
And so the questions
have turned over in our mind and the answer slowly came to us. Mold.
We knew about mold, we had read about how many Lyme patients suffer from
Mold Toxin Illness (also known as CIRS – Chronic Inflammatory Response
Syndrome) and that they need to have this issue under control before they begin Lyme treatment. We knew that our house definitely had some mold issues. What we did not know was whether the mold we
continue to see in our home is toxic mold or safe mold as not all molds release
dangerous toxins. We also had no idea of
the depth of problems toxic mold can cause and so began a lot more reading with
an already fried brain from all the Lyme reading. And the more we read the more we thought
“this sounds very possible” and the more we read about how to deal with CIRS the
more we thought “this is crazy” or “that’s way over the top” or “it’s not really
that bad that we have to be that extreme in treatment”.
We researched the
various testing options and whether to test the home or test our bodies. The ultimate test is to go on a mold
sabbatical (either move or an extended holiday, preferably in a dry desert
area) and see how you feel, but moving presents its problems as you have no
idea what you are moving into and whether it is safe without testing each location. After reading through the various testing
methods and how to approach this problem we decided on doing ERMI testing, a
test that evaluates the DNA of the dust in your home to see what molds are in your home and whether they are
at a dangerous level. We also decided
that whatever the tests results came back at we would still move - partly because we had already been considering
this before the whole mold thing arose and partly because it was the only way
we’d have peace of mind about whether our home was the issue. The ERMI tests would help us to determine how
seriously we had to take the recommendations to leave all of our belongs behind
due to cross-contamination, or whether we could take a chance on taking some of
our items with us after properly cleaning them.
A week ago we
received the results of our ERMI test. A home is safe to
live in if the results is 2 or under (the numbers can go to -10). A home has high toxic mold
levels and becomes unsafe to live in if the results are 5 or higher. Our home came back at 24.1. Not only does our home have a mold toxin issue, it is considered unsafe to live in. No wonder we have three sick kids!!
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